Chapter 576: Breakthrough – Part 2

Another hour passed in silence, but other than Yuki waking up once, seeing nobody had moved, yawning cutely, then going back to sleep, nothing else happened.

Then, finally, the World Qi around Eris surged noticeably before all plunging into her body just as she completed the Winding River Flows to the Sea Form.

Eris came to a halt, her eyes remaining closed as she breathed slowly and deeply, her entire body seeming to relax as a wave of comfort flooded her senses.

10 minutes ticked by like this before the young red-head slowly opened her eyes and looked over at her family.

It was a serene sight to behold, one that was equal parts solemn and tranquil; that is, until a giant grin appeared on Eris’ face and she leapt into the air cheering, "I did it I did it I did it!!"

"Haa... this silly girl, when will she ever mature," Sasha massaged her temples as she watched her daughter’s decidedly unladylike display, though it was clear from the broad smile on her face that she wasn’t really upset.

If anything, Sasha was truly happy and proud of Eris, as any mother would be.

Christina raced over and gave her Senior Sister a big hug, joining in the celebration while Lucas and the other adults all clapped and congratulated Eris.

Breakthroughs always had a certain degree of risk associated with them as true to their name, they were a violent process whereby one literally ’broke through’ their limits and ascended to a higher Realm.

Now, Cultivation Techniques were designed to smooth over this process greatly and reduced the risk of harm to an almost negligible level, but negligible wasn’t zero.

What’s more, Eris was the first to use Lucas’ new method to achieve a breakthrough from one Major Realm to the next, so despite months of having proved perfectly safe, until her breakthrough was complete, everyone in the room had a faint hint of worry lingering in the back of their minds.

Fortunately, everything had gone smoothly and Eris had now officially entered the First Step Vein Opening Realm.

For the 14-year-old Disciple of the strongest woman in the Rockwell Kingdom, Eris’ cultivation wasn’t anything special; in fact, it was somewhat lacking, but no one cared about that right now.

What was important was that Eris was making steady progress, and thanks to the new cultivation method and rigorous physical training, her foundation was much stronger than normal, allowing her to display a level of strength far above average for her Realm.

.....

Once the preliminary celebrations were over, and make no mistake, there were real celebrations planned for later, Lucas turned to Elder Elizabeth and asked directly, "Did you learn anything useful?"

Glancing over at the young boy she had worked so closely with these past few months, Elizabeth Carlson smiled elegantly and nodded, "Indeed I did."

Hearing this, a smile appeared on Lucas’ face as he urged, "Please, do share."

Since she took over as the primary researcher for Project Ascension, Elizabeth Carlson had basically buried herself in her work. Thanks to her dedicated efforts, she had made several important discoveries; however, real progress had eluded Elizabeth until about a month ago when she had a sudden epiphany.

Right after that happened, the old woman had practically locked herself away to explore this new line of thought, only emerging every few days for important events or to simply collapse from exhaustion, but apparently it had been worth it.

According to Elizabeth, she was very close to a breakthrough of her own, a research one, that is, and all she needed now was to observe a cultivation breakthrough of someone using the new method to confirm her theories.

In other words, Eris’ breakthrough had arrived at the perfect time.

.....

Motioning towards the seat nearby, Elizabeth Carlson moved towards a large blackboard, picked up a piece of chalk, and began writing. Then, a minute later, once everyone was seated, she began.

"Putting it simply, I realized we were going about this whole process backwards," Elizabeth Carlson explained, immediately gathering the attention of everyone in Celestina’s private cultivation chamber.

"We’ve been looking at Lucas’ new method of cultivation as separate and distinct from traditional Cultivation Techniques, but that was a mistake," Elizabeth continued, "What we should’ve focused on wasn’t the differences between the two methods, but the similarities, and why under certain circumstances they synergized, while in others, they seemed to conflict."

Pursing her lips, Christina mulled over these words for a while before shaking her head, "What you say makes sense, Aunt Elizabeth, but... I don’t understand how that helps us fully replace our old method of cultivation for the new one."

"Hohoho," Elizabeth chuckled and shook her head, "That’s precisely the problem. We can’t."

This time, everyone in the room, Lucas and Celestina included, were confused.

Seeing the questioning looks on everyone’s face, Elizabeth smiled and turned back to the blackboard to continue writing.

As she wrote, Elizabeth spoke, like she was giving a classroom lecture, "While it may not be as systematic as the Unarmed Foundations Art Lucas has provided to us, dismissing traditional Cultivation Techniques which are the product of centuries, if not millennia of effort, was a mistake."

"In the simplest terms, practicing a Cultivation Technique allows us to draw in World Qi from the air, or from some other source like a Spirit Crystal, circulate it around our body to refine it, then absorb a portion of it."

"In the Body Tempering Realm, the circulation of World Qi occurs through our bloodstream."

"In order to break through to the Vein Opening Realm, we must draw in enough World Qi to saturate our bloodstream. Once that saturation is complete, World Qi overflows into our meridians and fills them."

Pausing here, Elizabeth turned to Eris and commented, "This is precisely what you just experienced, and what we all witnessed. World Qi built up slowly in your body as you cultivated until finally, there was a sudden surge at the moment of breakthrough."

Thinking back on what she had just experienced, Eris nodded, "That’s right, it felt like... like I was eating more and more, then I ate too much and almost choked, but at the last moment I grabbed a glass of water and managed to wash it down."